Catharine Grimes, President of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, shared on LinkedIn:
“A woman in her forties. She lives in Delhi. She has never smoked. She goes to a clinic and asks whether she should be screened for lung cancer.
Under most current screening guidelines, she likely would not qualify.
But does that mean she is not at risk? That is a much harder question.
Most lung cancer screening guidelines were developed in high-income countries and largely around smoking history.
Yet an estimated 40-50% of people diagnosed with lung cancer in India are never-smokers.
Lung cancer also tends to present at a younger age, while other potential risk factors – including sustained exposure to air pollution – are not adequately reflected in current screening criteria.
This is fundamentally an evidence gap. And it cannot be solved by simply importing screening models developed for other populations and other health systems.
Researchers at AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi) are now leading two important studies, supported by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, to help build the evidence India needs. One is examining air pollution as a lung cancer risk factor. The other is evaluating low-dose CT screening, including who is being identified, at what stage, and what screening could look like in the Indian context.
This is where meaningful implementation begins: generating evidence in the populations and health systems the evidence is meant to serve.
And the implications may extend well beyond India. By developing, testing, and evaluating approaches that reflect different risk profiles and healthcare realities, Indian researchers have an opportunity to inform how we think about equitable lung cancer screening in other parts of the world as well.
This is also how we think about our role at the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation: supporting local leadership, strengthening health systems, and helping generate the evidence needed to develop more effective models of care – and ultimately improve access and outcomes for patients.
Read more in our Devex op-ed, co-authored with Dr. Abhishek Shankar, as part of our Strengthening Care Systems series.”
You can also read Lung Cancer Screening in Women: 5 Breakthrough Insights Highlight New Risk Groups on OncoDaily.
